peanut butter cookie s’mores pizza

This is just pure fun. Just pure chocolate and peanut butter and sugary goodness, made into a pizza.

Going through recipes recently and deciding on what to cook, the constant theme for me has been how my cooking is going to change not only in the coming months, but in the coming years. I think all the time about foods our daughter will hopefully like, about foods we’ll share with her from our plates, about the favorites our kids might have and the meals and desserts they might request for special occasions. (For me it was always steak and peanut butter pie.)

And I wonder what memories she’ll have associated with the food I make. For me, this dessert always makes me think of my camp friends, and how when we were high school we were at camp for a weekend in the middle of winter and one of our friends pulled this out of thin air, as if it were magic, and we all wondered where she had been hiding it all weekend.

Maybe this will be a birthday dessert one day, or a slumber party dessert, or a movie night dessert.

I just know that it took Gerrit and me all week to work our way through this cookie pizza, and I’m so glad that one day in the future we might not even feel like we get our fair share of a slice before it’s gone.

As Gerrit said when he took the first bite of this the other day--this is everything a dessert should be. Be careful on your portions though; this is rich and sweet. If you want less of a sugar high, cut back on the chocolate and marshmallows. But this is an indulgence, so I say go for it.

Ingredients

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

3/4 cup creamy peanut butter

1 egg, room temperature

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon table salt

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

2 cups mini marshmallows

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a medium sized bowl, combine the butter, sugar, and brown sugar. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and creamy, about 1 minute. Then add the peanut butter and beat it in (the mixture should still be fluffy). Add the egg and the vanilla and beat until combined.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the butter/sugar mixture, beating on low speed just until it forms a smooth cookie dough.

Dump the dough out into a rimmed pizza pan and, using your fingers, spread it out to the edges in an even layer.

Bake for 10 minutes. Then remove from oven and evenly sprinkle the chocolate chips on top. Top the chocolate chips with an even layer of marshmallows. Return the pizza to the oven for 5-7 more minutes, until the marshmallows are beginning to turn toasty brown on top.

Remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes. Slice into wedges and serve warm (although it is still delicious later at room temperature).